Monday, October 31, 2016

In October 2011, President Thomas S Monson in the opening session of the 182nd annual General Conference announced the new temples to be built. He said,

"I am pleased to announce new temples in the following locations: Barranquilla, Colombia; Durban, South Africa; Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; and Star Valley, Wyoming... I think I’ll dedicate that one. It’s good fishing up there."

Well, President Monson was not able to take his fishing trip up to Wyoming this weekend to dedicate the now complete Star Valley Temple. Instead, Elder Bednar dedicated the Temple in all three sessions. Here is his photo outside the temple that was published in the Deseret News.

While most might not notice, it is now becoming commonplace to no longer have an East facing Angel Moroni on top of the Temple.. Last month, I wrote a blog post "Does the direction we face matter"about the new Meridian Temple where I pointed out that the iconic statue faces South. The decision was made to align Angel Moroni to those entering into the Temple instead of the symbolic facing east symbolically heralding in the Lord's Return. The Angel Moroni on this newly dedicated temple in Wyoming does not face East either. It actually faces directly West. With this new orientation, Angel Moroni will always have his back to the rising sun (see the photo below.) I am not sure why the departure from the symbolic East direction. Having Angel Moroni facing the complete opposite direction seems odd to me.